HAIR

March 27, 2017

Japanese Hibachi Dinner at Shogun

Two weeks ago, Uncle Cakes turned 70, and to celebrate, the family decided to head to Shogun Restaurant. It is a Japanese restaurant not too far from home, and they have different offerings from sushi to hibachi grill food. Cakes had never been to a Hibachi restaurant before, so I thought it would be a nice treat for him.

FUN FACT: My sister and her hubby got engaged one night after having dinner there. I think.

Shall we dive into a little bit of history? Yay, learning is fun, innit? So... what is hibachi? What I knew as hibachi is the American version, not the Japanese version. In Japan, Hibachi is actually an open-topped container traditionally used as a heater! There ARE Hibachi barbecue grills, but these are open-grate grills that use coal or gas flames. What we know as Hibachi in America is actually a Teppan (iron hot plate), and the style of food is Teppanyaki. Are we all caught up?

The first restaurant claiming to serve this kind of cuisine was Misono in 1945 in Japan. They noticed though that foreigners seemed to enjoy the experience (and the food) more than the locals. So they decided to focus on the performance aspect of their chefs, which are a delight to watch. Scroll all the way down at the end to see my Snapchat story from that night.

At Shogun the food comes with soup (basically broth) and a salad (basically chopped salad with LOTS of ginger dressing). Honestly, they're both quite underwhelming, but they give you something to do while waiting for the food to be ready.

We all sat around the grill, and the chef came by and started his "performance" and cooking for us.

We all ordered different meats from chicken to salmon to steak to lobster and shrimp and scallops. Cakes and I ordered different combinations, so we could share from each others' plates.

By the time all the meats were cooked, we were all famished and eagerly dove into our food. Some people ate till they couldn't even blink, and others saved half of their food to take home and eat the other half there (this is a good trick for portion control, by the way).

This was my plate with scallops, shrimp, lobster, chicken, steak and shrimp. Yes, I finished it all. Yes, I felt miserable and overstuffed by the time I got home. Hmm, maybe that's why I didn't sleep well that night.

For those of you in Lagos who haven't tried this kinda cuisine, check out Sakura - it's been reviewed by EatDrinkLagos and Yewande of She Loves The Finer Things. I know there are other restaurants that have Japanese food, but I'm not sure if they have the teppanyaki grills.

Anyways, it was a fun outing. Thanks again for all your nice wishes to Cakes on here and Instagram and Facebook. Y'all are TOO MUSH!

P.S. My birthday is in exactly 2 months - May 29th (Democracy Day in Nigeria, Memorial Day in Hamrika, and some Bank Holiday in the UK). But I'm going to be kinda all by my lonely. I'm taking suggestions for what I should do - book a spa day for myself, or go and chill in a hotel somewhere and get pampered?

WOW The food looks really mouthwatering. The restaurant reminds me of Tepanyaki here in the UK. Never been but I like the idea of food being cooked right in front of me. It looks like you had an amazing time.

For some reason, your experience here reminds me of Korean Grill where the customers have to cook the meat themselves over an open fire in the middle of their tables. It's a pretty interesting experience. Well, your pictures are very nice!

First time commenting on your blog, after following your blog since your initial move to Lagos.

Happy Belated birthday to Cakes!

Your birthday is a day after mine, yeah for May babies! Just want to commend you on getting back to the flow of putting up more blog posts, from your past blog posts and vlogs,I know the process has not always been easy, but please know that the best is yet to come, God has something big in store for you, and it's just around the corner, keep holding on and pushing through!

Thanks a lot for the encouragement. I was kinda flailing there for a while, and wasn't sure how to get back on track, but thank God! My creative juices have been flowing! I actually have the whole of April's blog posts ready and have started writing May's posts too.